We recently joined the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and Sesame Workshop to launch a new PSA featuring HHS Secretary Sebelius and Sesame Street’s Elmo as part of our Flu Prevention campaign. The Secretary unveiled the TV spot during an event in New York City attended by about 20 preschool children. When Elmo entered the room, I watched the incredible reaction from the children as their eyes opened widely and their mouths dropped and it got me to thinking about the power of this furry little red guy in influencing kids.

I wasn’t surprised to see the excitement from the children – I remember when Elmo called my nephew on his 2nd birthday and it was the highlight of his life, and “Elmo” was actually my niece’s first word. However, I was thinking about the power of Elmo to influence attitudes and behaviors from a social marketing perspective. In the Flu case, our goal is to encourage children to take steps to protect themselves from the flu this season (i.e. sneezing into the bend of your arm and staying home when you’re sick). We haven’t seen the results from this effort yet.

However, if you look back to an Elmo/Broccoli study conducted by Sesame Workshop a few years ago, you can see the powerful connection between character branding and children’s food choices. The study found that the intake of a particular food significantly increased if it carried a sticker of a Sesame Street character, especially Elmo.

For example, when presented with the option of a chocolate bar or a piece of broccoli, with no character branding on either food, 78% of preschool children participating in the study chose the chocolate bar over the broccoli and 22% chose the broccoli. No surprise there. However, when an Elmo sticker was placed on the broccoli and an unknown character was placed on the chocolate bar, 50% chose the chocolate bar and 50% chose the broccoli. Studies like these clearly reveal how influential Elmo and other Sesame Street characters could be in increasing the appeal of healthy foods.

Thankfully, Elmo is already at the forefront of helping combat the childhood obesity epidemic. Last year he starred in a PSA with Michelle Obama to help teach kids about healthy eating and he’s also appeared in a series of TV spots as part of our Coalition for Healthy Children and Sesame Workshop’s “Healthy Habits for Life” initiative.

So, I guess it’s clear that Elmo is a powerful furry red guy. After all, in my research for this post, I did find out that Elmo is the only non-human character or puppet ever to testify before the U.S. Congress. Do you know of any other characters that have as much influence as Elmo on a social issue?